Malay or cornish?

[baronrenfrew]

So I recently acquired a trio of Dark Cornish from WLLady. I thank her again for saving them for me. On first sight they seemed a bit "tall" for dark cornish but not a big deal, they're still young and the colour looked great (and the crate was heavy: that's a good sign). I had some birds In the late 1990's that were acquired from local auctions. (If I had a time machine I'd go back to 1985 and visit the breeders who lived in Renfrew: Jim had imported birds from Britain back when it was easy to do.)
My birds at the the time were nowhere near show quality; except for one hen that was a beauty but I suspect she was older and I only had two breeding seasons from her before she expired (and her eggs were misshapen with a poor shell so not many successful offspring). She was heavy; like lifting four bricks and very tame. I would pass her around among visitors to impress them.

So upon further inspection I believe these have many Malay qualities (and they are derived from Malays so not a surprise). 1. Compact body on longish legs 2. The body is more horizontal then a cornish. 3. A bit too much tail on the roo 4. cathy reported they were poor layers so far (and so far here as well) (not that cornish are great layers)
Not that I am a qualified judge or have a lot of experience.
In my opinion the feather colour and type is good (one hen is a real beauty). The comb and wattles look right (really a lack of comb and wattles.) They're fairly tame (i've had some birds go feral: they are heavy but can run and fly: one year I rounded up the birds from the shed to move to the barn and one hen took off and took two months to catch: 3/10 would go broody and are good mothers). And this rooster is definetly doing his job.

As a report card: i give them a B+, and that's pretty good for me.

[WLLady]

So your trio may not be laying yet....they are still pretty young and some cornish dont lay till they are 6 months old....from my notes they hatched in february this year. So they should be laying soon..

[Robbie]

Those Cornish will keep growing and growing, next thing you know they will be 10 lb hens and a 14 lb rooster. They are fast to feather in as chicks, but then they seem to lag behind the others. When they are all done growing, you will be amazed at how big they are! One of my hens is so massive I'm waiting for her to drop dead from a heart attack in the heat, but so far so good. I have a massive Buckeye cross son of hers and if she makes it to next year I plan to breed him back to her.
I just love, love, love my Cornish. But unlike Malays they are at the bottom of the pecking order.

[baronrenfrew]

One or two eggs so far: the red hybrids are boss of the pen, and they're not agressive to my young partridge chanteclers (they were all loose in the yard tonite).

[kenya]

They are still young and will improve .Hard to find good cornish and they take so long before you know if they are really good, at least a year or year and a half. I find that with the spangled , very few even decent ones around, and that's why I out crossed to dark Cornish to try and improve, my dark cornish are so much better ,but it's a long wait. Have you candled your eggs yet to see how they are coming along? Mine are still laying like crazy which is very unusual , I think I'll put some under a broody, hate to waste them.

[baronrenfrew]

Bator is on lock down: ten guineas due. This day 7 on bantam eggs so i'll report on the weekend.

[Killerbunny]

Really pretty, I like their "look"